In addition to AIA’s proactive advocacy work, outlined in its five year strategy 2022-2026, we also react to current situations of animal cruelty .
AIA’s International Campaigns Secretary, Marian Hussenbux is responsible for AIA’s global animal advocacy work. This involves writing to people of influence about animal suffering and cruelty around the world, often in support of campaigns run by other organisations.
AIA’S CAMPAIGNING ACTIVITY
November 2025 – February 2026
UNITED KINGDOM
We wrote again to several Leaders of the Greater Manchester Councils about the transportation of Long-Tailed Macaques through Manchester Airport.
The single reply we received came from Michael Cullen of Stockport Council:
“Thank you for your letter on behalf of the Animal Interfaith Alliance and for sharing your deeply held concerns regarding the transportation of Long-Tailed Macaques through Manchester Airport. The Leader of the Council has asked me to respond.
We recognise the strength of feeling on this issue and the concerns raised by your members.
As you are aware, while local authorities such as Bury and Stockport are shareholders in Manchester Airport Group, we do not have operational control over the Airport’s day-to-day activities, including decisions about cargo or flight operations. These are governed by national and international aviation regulations, and the airport is legally bound to comply with all relevant legislation. This includes the lawful transportation of animals, even in cases where the ethical implications are subject to public debate.
That said, we have taken steps to ensure that the concerns raised by residents and organisations like yours are heard. As previously stated, I have contacted Manchester Airport to share your concerns and requested that they review whether there are any additional factors they should take into account.
Kind regards,
Michael Cullen Chief Executive & Place Based Lead, Stockport MBC & Greater Manchester Integrated Care”
Together with the League Against Cruel Sports, we wrote to Emma Reynolds, the Environment Secretary, after the recent incident in the Lake District that led to 16 people being arrested for suspected illegal hunting. We are calling on her to honour her department’s promise to launch the consultation on strengthening hunting laws early in the New Year.
Badgers: we wrote to Angela Eagle at DEFRA and Emma Reynolds, pointing out that more than 250,000 badgers have now been killed in England in the name of controlling bovine tuberculosis. After more than a decade, the evidence is clear: badger culling has failed. It has not eradicated bovine TB, it has not delivered sustained reductions in cattle disease, and it has caused immense and unnecessary suffering to wildlife.
Despite this, the Government was allowing the final badger cull in Cumbria (Area 73) to continue, even though:
TB prevalence in badgers in the area is low – there is no robust scientific evidence that badgers pose a meaningful ongoing risk to cattle in the Low Risk Area – the policy was never designed in a way that allows its effectiveness to be measured – cattle TB cases in northern England are increasingly linked to the movement of infected cattle, not wildlife.
We are also concerned that the Government now intends to replace killing with badger vaccination, despite the lack of evidence that vaccinating badgers reduces bovine TB in cattle. Badger vaccination does not address the real drivers of the disease and risks prolonging the false narrative that wildlife, rather than cattle management failures, is the primary problem.
Bovine TB’s persistence is driven by:
Inadequate testing and known test failures – the movement of infected cattle into new areas -Intensive farming practices and biosecurity failures.
Blaming, killing, or vaccinating wildlife does not fix this.
The proposal to designate the “life sciences” sector as Key National Infrastructure under the Public Order Act 2023 is dangerous and undemocratic.
The Public Order Act has already been widely criticised by civil liberties organisations, UN Special Rapporteurs, and parliamentarians from across the political spectrum for its disproportionate impact on the right to peaceful protest. Expanding its scope to include the life sciences sector (including animal testing facilities) would represent a serious and unnecessary escalation of those powers.
More than 15,000 people contacted their MPs in less than 24 hours ahead of its consideration by a Delegated Legislation Committee, and concerns were raised directly by MPs during parliamentary proceedings.
Peaceful protest against animal testing has a long and legitimate history in this country, and there is no evidence that existing laws are insufficient to deal with genuine criminal activity. This proposal also sits uneasily alongside the Labour Party’s stated commitment to the long-term phasing out of animal testing.
Update on January 15: this anti-democratic proposal found favour in the Commons: -For: 250 Against: 133
Unfortunately, the Lords have also come out in support.
SPAIN
We wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food about force feeding of ducks and geese, asking them not to block an initiative in Congress about this cruel and outdated practice.
This initiative respects public will and proposes a reasonable and ordered transition away.
Signatures on the petition numbered more than 120.000 over a few weeks.
We wrote again to the Mayor of Mijas about the donkey taxis in her city, about which she had shown no concern. The organisations FAADA, Donkey Dreamland, Todos los Caballos del Mundo y El Refugio del Burrito, joined in their opposition to this form of transport. On November 24, she made it clear in a short meeting her intention to keep the present system for at least 5 more years.
This was among the realistic and viable measures proposed by the animal welfare groups – and rejected:
Free specialised veterinary inspection of the 60 donkeys, given that the town vet is not a specialist in equines.
Current issues requiring urgent attention are: poor living conditions – lack of hygiene – more than 80% of the animals with hoof problems – old animals working and/or permanently tethered – harness lesions – refusal to castrate.
The Town Hall shows a clear lack of empathy and compromise.
FRANCE
We wrote to the Mayor of Bouillargues about a Novillada on October 11, at which six very young calves were killed.
We reminded the Mayor that though tauromachy is considered a tradition of the region that does not make it right. We appealed to him to consult his conscience and feel sympathy for such young and helpless creatures.
After the calves’ deaths, activists were present to bring a little humanity to such a sad moment. We told them that AIA was in moral support.
A main anti-blood sports organisation in France, CRAC Europe, was pleased by the decision in the Bethune court concerning the organiser of cockfights in Norrent-Fontes, Pas de Calais.
“Their case, supported by Association Stéphane Lamart, One Voice and Société Nationale pour la Défense des Animaux took many years of hard legal work.
The court established there was no local uninterrupted tradition of cockfighting in this town – no fights were organised between 1999 and 2021.
Cultural exception is often invoked to justify cruel practices on animals. (this is how bullfighting is legal in parts of the south of France)
For the period of January 1 2023 to 30 March 2025, the organiser (president of a cock breeding association) was found guilty of acts of cruelty and liable to pay a 10, 000 euros fine and he has a ban on exercising all activities linked to the cockfighting pit for 5 years.
CRAC Europe, the Stéphane Lamart Association, One Voice, and Société Nationale pour la Défense des Animaux were awarded 1,500 euros each for the mental stress involved.”
After the airing of a report by One Voice and Ecotalk, we wrote to ask the French authorities for immediate intervention in the case of the hippopotamus named Jumbo, kept captive by the Zavatta and the Muller Family for more than 30 years in conditions unconducive to his welfare and causing great suffering.
The latest vet report was on Jan. 9 2026, and is unequivocal – Jumbo has difficulty walking, common in captive hippos, and this is probably very painful. The vet indicated that Jumbo’s condition is one of the worst seen of animals in captivity.
Thanks to One Voice’s work, the confiscation of Jumbo had been officially ordered in 2019. This never happened as members of the circus were extremely violent to the forces of law and order and confiscation was abandoned.
These requests have now been made:
Immediate and independent medical assessment – including X rays of his limbs – to establish a precise diagnosis and the treatment needed;
Removal of Jumbo from the circus and transfer to a specialised sanctuary, with access to water, which would help his joints, and land areas should be easily accessible.
ICELAND
We wrote to Minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, CVO Þóra Jóhanna Jónasdóttir, and DCVO Vigdís Tryggvadóttir, to express deep concern about Iceland’s horse-blood industry and the upcoming decision on whether to renew its permit.
This practice inflicts serious harm on the mares exploited. It is high-volume blood extraction done so that a pharma company can harvest the hormone PMSG for industrial farming abroad.
Renewing the horse-blood permit would contradict Iceland’s commitments to animal protection and put the nation’s global image — including its vital tourism sector — at serious risk. We asked that they:
-Reject any renewal of the horse-blood permit -commit to ending this industry permanently -uphold Iceland’s reputation as a leader in sustainability, ethics, and respect for animals.
We asked them – all women – to reflect more deeply on the suffering to which this practice subjects vulnerable mares.
INDIA
In response to a recently reported incident at Amer Fort in Rajasthan, where two elephants, Dilruba and Gouri were involved in a fight – PETA India has urged the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Shri Bhajan Lal Sharma, to ban elephant rides at Amer Fort and Hathi Gaon and rehabilitate all elephants to sanctuaries—starting with those involved in violent incidents. During the incident, Chanchal fell, injuring a man who was passing through the area on a motorbike. The man was hospitalised…
Many of the elephants at the Amer Fort, including Dilruba, Chanchal and Gouri, are illegally kept in Rajasthan with the private owners are only granted ‘interim custody’ per the FIRs filed by the Rajasthan Forest Department in 2016 for violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. In fact, data procured via the Right to Information Act show that in 2023, 38 out of 79 elephants used for rides at Amer Fort – almost 50% – did not have valid ownership certificates making Rajasthan a hub for illegal wildlife trafficking…
We joined PETA India in urging the Chief Minister of Rajasthan to take immediate steps to replace elephant rides with eco-friendly motorised vehicles, as was recommended in a report of the committee constituted by the Project Elephant division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, per an order of the Supreme Court of India.
NEPAL
We wrote to the Honourable Shri Aain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri, Minister of Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Environment about the Chitwan Elephant Festival.
Every year at the end of December, helpless elephants endure horrific abuse at this festival. Elephants are forced to perform in unnatural ways for entertainment, including in an elephant “beauty pageant” and sporting events such as polo, football, and racing.
When the festival returned in 2023, after the pandemic, organizers dropped the elephant sports events in response to awareness campaigns by groups like PETA, which highlighted the cruelty involved in training elephants for these activities. Shocking footage from past festivals revealed elephants being violently beaten to force them to perform, including a baby elephant who was repeatedly stabbed behind the ear and left with bloody wounds in an effort to make her participate in a football match.
Species Unite reported that brutal elephant sports were re-introduced in 2024. Footage from the event revealed that the elephants forced to participate in these games once again suffered violent abuse.
We mentioned to the Minister that we are in contact with several excellent campaigning organisations in Nepal, who are working tirelessly to stop this horrific exploitation, but the Ministry of Forests and Environment remains silent on the issue. Worse still, the government often provides elephants for the festival, a clear violation of conservation principles under which these elephants should be protected, not exploited.
We asked the Government of Nepal to withdraw their support for the festival and see that elephants benefit from a legal position of being animals of conservation, not of perceived entertainment.
USA
We wrote to the Hawai’i Board of Land and Natural Resources about the capture of fishes from their reefs, reminding them that in 2017 we wrote to the authorities in protest against the same practice and were very relieved that it was stopped.
We asked the Board to preserve the reefs intact and not allow a commercial body to wreck a wonderful and unique environment and kill the legitimate residents – because that is what happens to many of these delicate creatures.
The Endangered Species Act – Decades of conservation gains for endangered and threatened species could now be reversed.
We informed the authorities that the ESA is an enlightened piece of legislation admired in Britain – bald eagles, grey whales, and more species have been brought back from the edge of extinction because of it.
We also understand that the ESA has consistent bipartisan support, with 84% of Americans in support of it from all sides of the political spectrum.
In the North Atlantic, which I singled out as Britain shares this ocean, right whales, loggerhead sea turtles and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles could lack protections for migration routes, nesting beaches, and feeding areas. North Atlantic right whales already lack adequate protections from fatal vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements. Increased development also affects adversely many species of birds. We asked them to please think again and protect their ESA.
The wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park are at risk. We appealed to the authorities in the Park to support S.1377 with the amendments submitted by Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates. (CHWHA)
These amendments ensure genetic viability, protect all 200 current horses, and establish a collaborative working group for responsible compassionate management.
The wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park are the current generation of horses long-established in the Park, their legitimate home.
For more about these wild horses see: http://www.chwha.org
Via Compassion Works international, we pursued the case of captive elephants in zoos.
It is sad news – Indu at Phoenix Zoo was euthanized in May, Tembo at Cameron Park Zoo passed away of unknown causes in December, and Tina with Billy, you might remember- were not sent to sanctuary by LA Zoo, but to Tulsa Zoo in dead of night.
There are now 4 more elephants whose lives cause great concern – Emily at Buttonwood Park Zoo in Massachusetts, Tembo (different elephant) at Topeka Zoo, and, of course, Happy and Patty at Bronx Zoo.
These are female elephants located at zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
Which, we contend, should help them. In their accreditation materials, the AZA notes that female elephants should be housed in groups of at least three.
Despite this, AZA zoos frequently subvert those recommendations and keep single elephants with no apparent threat to the zoo’s accreditation status.
We have signed the latest letter to the AZA to protest. Not only are these elephants kept alone but they are in zoos located in places with harsh and freezing winters.
If this is how AZA- accredited zoos keep elephants, one cannot expect others – plus the 5 individuals who are permitted to keep elephants in the US – to do any better. There is no incentive to.
For much more information please see:
and to help Happy and Patty, please sign:
UPDATE: Angeline. Savanna. Tasha. Victoria. Zuri are the five elephants currently spending a lifetime behind bars at the Pittsburgh Zoo, an institution that has repeatedly been named one of the worst zoos in the United States.
But there is hope. One of the biggest legal cases for animals in American history is about to take place.
A Pennsylvania court is set to hear a first-ever habeas corpus petition for these five African elephants being held captive – an extraordinary legal challenge led by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), pushing back against a centuries-old status quo that still treats nonhuman animals as legal “things,” with no rights at all.
www,speciesunite.com
We contacted the Board of Directors, Oregon Health & Science University, having been informed that as of 2023, 5,403 monkeys were imprisoned at the ONPRC, making it one of the largest primate laboratories in the world. This has cost the taxpayers – many of whom will not approve of the work carried out there – more than $335 million in government handouts in the fiscal year 2023.
The facility’s decades-long history of incompetence and cruelty make it imperative that it shut down and funnel its money into cutting-edge, non-animal experimentation that promises real results for human patients.
We asked the Board to support the closure of this lab. as soon as practicable, reminding them that in the US, as in Britain, there is much excellent work done by researchers who do not exploit a single animal and surely they too would want to see results that have not caused suffering to sentient beings.
UPDATE:
We heard from PETA that the Oregon Health & Science University Board of Directors released a proposed resolution to end experiments on monkeys, stop breeding them, and explore turning the facility into a sanctuary where the remaining monkeys can live out their lives in peace.
We shall know if this resolution is passed after their meeting on Feb. 9. Fingers crossed.
On the same subject, baboon mothers and babies are exposed to cruel and scientifically baseless experiments at the University of Maryland Baltimore, (UMB) which the National Institutes of Health (NIH) currently funds until at least 2029.
Female baboons are confined for life, denied basic social and environmental needs, and impregnated, enduring multiple invasive surgeries—often in violation of federal rules regarding the number of allowed surgeries. The current research protocol dictates that 224 baboon foetuses will be cut out of their mothers via C-section and immediately killed for analysis. Some surviving infants are subjected to numerous painful and invasive procedures, including heart catheters, induced insulin surges, and multiple organ biopsies, before potentially being reused in future experiments.
Beagles, Wisconsin – a few months ago Ridglan Farms agreed to wind down the breeding arm of its business, rather than face a criminal trial for felony animal cruelty.
Despite the urging of animal rights groups, the agreement Special Prosecutor Gruenke negotiated with Ridglan Farms did not confiscate their 3,200 beagles; instead, it gave America’s second largest beagle breeder until July 1, 2026 to dispose of them.
Without a state law requiring Ridglan to make dogs available for adoption, the beagles could be destroyed. We understand that 6 states already require research facilities to list healthy dogs and cats for adoption, instead of killing them once an experiment or study ends.
Introduced as Wisconsin’s Beagle Freedom bill, S.B. 414 quickly won bipartisan support. But two months later, Senator Wanggaard submitted amendments, which critics claim eviscerated the bill’s intent.
We asked Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin to advocate for the beagles still caged in Ridglan.
CANADA
A long term issue you will remember well – the Liberal Party promised to ban the export of live horses for slaughter in Japan back in 2021, and the then Prime Minister Trudeau mandated the Agriculture Minister to end this practice—but to this day, horses continue to be shipped to their deaths. We wrote yet again to PM Mark Carney and twice to Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald to ask for action to be taken.
Since that mandate letter, over 8,000 horses have been sent on gruelling flights to Japan. The number of horses exported each year is increasing—2024 saw the highest number of horses exported in nearly a decade.
We understand that nearly 80% of Canadians support a federal ban on the export of horses for slaughter overseas. Over the years, three NDP private members’ bills have been introduced to ban this practice, yet none have passed.
Vigil for the horses: https://animaljustice.ca/blog/nationwide-candlelight-vigils-for-the-horses-lost-to-live exports?utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=horse_export&utm_content=january_newsletter&utm_term=button
We wrote to Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner about roadside zoos. Ontario has some of the weakest zoo laws in Canada. It is outrageous that zoos are not required to be licensed or routinely inspected, allowing facilities with barren, inadequate conditions, to operate with little oversight or accountability.
The recent animal abuse conviction involving the operator of Bervie Zoo makes it clear that even when abuse is proven, the system still fails animals. Despite pleading guilty to three provincial charges in a severe case where baboons, pigs, and other animals were kept in a dark, dirty barn, he received no real fine or penalty and was allowed to continue owning animals and operating the zoo.
We urged the authorities to implement mandatory zoo licensing, regular inspections, and stronger penalties, including clear authority to shut down facilities where animals are in distress.
Bearhunting in British Columbia – Allowing hunting in August means that cubs could be orphaned. Though it is illegal to hunt a bear under two years old or any bear in their company, family groups can be separated, cubs can be out of sight, and mistakes happen—especially in thick cover and fast-moving situations.
Expanding the hunting of black bears undermines wildlife coexistence and educational efforts of community groups, municipalities and regional districts. If crop protection is the goal, proven options like properly built electric fencing and other attractant controls can prevent repeat issues without creating new safety and enforcement risks. We wrote to the authorities to object.
We were very disturbed by the news that Marineland is again threatening to kill 30 beluga whales and four dolphins unless it is allowed to send them to SeaWorld and other US aquariums.
We urged the authorities to ensure the permits include strict no-breeding conditions so no future animals will be forced to endure a cruel life of captivity.
Under Canadian law, export permits are only allowed if a transfer is in the best interests of each individual animal—a standard previously not met when Marineland sought to export belugas to China. Without binding, permanent guarantees that prohibit captive breeding, this proposal will also fall short of that legal requirement.
We congratulated Canada on having taken the compassionate step to ban the captive breeding and entertainment use of whales and dolphins.
We also asked that an individual health assessment for each animal should be required to determine their health status, determine whether they are fit for travel, and help to decide whether it is in the interest of each individual whale to be exported.
The Whale Sanctuary Project, which I and many others have supported since its inception, received approval from the Nova Scotia government to construct a seaside sanctuary that would provide vastly more space for whales than any aquarium can offer. This remains the best option for the whales.
UPDATE from Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Britain: “Ontario has a unique opportunity to help advance the creation of the planned whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia. By working with the federal government and the government of Nova Scotia to remove remaining regulatory barriers, Ontario can help make the sanctuary a reality—providing a safe and natural home for some of the belugas and establishing Canada as a global leader in whale protection.”
Some hopeful news from Canada – the first Animal Law Programme opened last year in the University of Toronto: https://jackmanlaw.utoronto.ca/animal-law-program
MEXICO
In the city of Guadalajara , more corridas were planned to begin on 25 January, opening another session of suffering for the bulls forced to enter the Plaza – ironically named “Nuevo Progreso.” – “New Progress”! We wrote to complain to the Mayor Verónica Delgadillo – her mailbox rejected the letter, but I managed to get a brief version onto her Contact Form on-line.
In many countries, sharks are still caught and carved up for their fins. Mexico, a major shark-fishing nation, is one of the worst offenders. In 2023, 46,000 metric tons of sharks were killed in Mexico’s waters, including critically endangered oceanic whitetip sharks. Meanwhile government officials have failed to adopt the same prohibitions the United States and other countries have put in place to protect sharks from being slaughtered for their fins.
We urged Mexico to protect these wonderful creatures by outlawing the possession, sale, and export of shark fins.
AUSTRALIA
Current licensing system allows the legal killing of native animals in NSW. We submitted to a Consultation as per details here: we understand that since 2017, almost 17,000 licences have been issued, resulting in the deaths of around 1.9 million animals. Lethal methods clearly cause suffering – how could they not? – and do not provide long-term solutions; nature abhors a vacuum and any empty niches will be filled by other animals.
We therefore urged the Committee to recommend independent oversight, stronger protections for wildlife, transparent public reporting, and a shift away from harmful control methods toward true coexistence.
This above is very pertinent as the recent wildfires in Victoria have caused terrible suffering – and now, very worryingly, the government has imposed a ban on wildlife rescuers, including the RSPCA, the Kangaroo Alliance, the Australian Society for Kangaroos and Five Freedoms Animal Rescue from accessing the areas to try to save and treat animals terribly injured in the fires.
We joined many Australians in writing to the PM of Victoria, Ms Jacinta Allan and the Minister of the Environment, Victoria, Steve Dimopoulos, to protest.
To make matters even worse, the Victoria government is also allowing the killing of 280,000 kangaroos, which seems utterly reckless.
We urgently appealed to the authorities to:
Rescind this misguided ban and allow experienced wildlife rescuers and animal protection organisations into the areas to do what they can for the survivors:
Rescind the decision to kill kangaroos en masse – an assault on their precious unique wildlife.
Via Animal Liberation, we responded to a request by Farm Transparency Project to oppose a particularly appalling planning application. Midland Bacon is a northern Victorian piggery which has been exposed for extreme cruelty. In 2024, hidden cameras captured a worker raping a sow, who later was named ‘Olivia’ by activists fighting for her liberation. Midland Bacon refused calls to surrender Olivia to sanctuary and instead moved her to an unknown location. The same investigation documented industry practices such as day-old piglets having their tails cut and teeth clipped, and unwanted “runt” piglets being violently killed via “thumping”. Now, Midland Bacon is seeking approval to expand its operation, threatening animals, public health, and the fragile ecosystems of the Mansfield Swamp Wildlife Reserve – directly contradicting Campaspe Shire Council’s own Environment Strategy which sets goals to preserve water sources and native species.
See more at http://www.farmtransparency.org
– Marian Hussenbux. February 7 2026.
Previous Campaign Reports
September 2025 – November 2025
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